March 11, 2021

BCO offers new guidance on indoor air quality

by Neil Franklin • Facilities management, News, Wellbeing

A new BCO research paper, Thoughts on ventilation design and operation post COVID-19, has called for UK offices to ensure they have adequate ventilation ahead of the return to work. The paper highlights that while most offices that follow good practice guidelines do benefit from indoor air quality, there are also many examples of poorly ventilated offices that fall short of the best practice guidelines set out in the BCO’s 2019 Guide to Specification. Poorly ventilated indoor spaces have been linked to COVID-19 super spreader events and the paper states that ventilation in these offices must be “addressed urgently.” (more…)

March 10, 2021

Working from home experience boosts demands for hybrid working

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Working lives

New data from Steelcase claims to highlight what the UK workforce is enjoying most about working from home, and which elements of work are suffering without access to the physical office. Nearly all (97 percent) of respondents want to return to the physical office for some or most of the time when possible, but nearly a year of working differently has altered expectations of the office, and businesses need to make vital changes to reflect this. (more…)

March 10, 2021

Intuitive technology from Sony for the people-centred workplace

by Freddie Steele • Company news

If you work in a larger office environment, the chances are your favourite aspect of work isn’t wandering around in search of a place to sit. Booking meetings probably doesn’t rank that highly either. Or locating colleagues. Sony believe in using intuitive technology to make everyday tasks as straightforward and stress-free as possible. Hence the development of the Nimway smart office solution, with an intuitively and elegantly designed app. (more…)

March 9, 2021

Area welcomes Mark Emburey as Strategic Relationship Director

by Freddie Steele • Company news

Area are delighted to announce the key appointment of Mark Emburey as Strategic Relationship Director. With over 20 years of commercial real estate experience, Mark will add his wealth of knowledge to Area’s already undoubted track record in assisting Landlords with their commercial assets. (more…)

March 5, 2021

GreenMe is the little cube working to create better buildings

by Freddie Steele • Company news, Wellbeing

An innovative little box that resembles a Rubik’s cube is making its way into corporate workspaces to assist facilities managers and HR teams gauge energy consumption and monitor the building’s efficiency, as well as track air quality, temperature and overall comfort of their physical surroundings. It’s all about better buildings. If individuals feel good in their workplace, they’re more likely to care about (and take care of) the buildings where they spend a large part of their days. And to ensure that the sample is truly representative, each individual can have a lightweight and portable GreenMe Comfort Meter on their own desk. (more…)

February 18, 2021

Self-employed workers and side hustlers to drive the UK’s economic recovery

by Jayne Smith • Business, News

Research released by Mettle and YouGov estimates that the UK’s growing self-employed and side hustler movement will contribute an estimated £125 billion in turnover to the UK’s economic recovery in 2021. Furthermore, small and medium-sized businesses (with 1-49 employees) are estimated to contribute approximately £310.46 billion. (more…)

February 18, 2021

Four new companies join WorldGBC’s Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment

by Jayne Smith • Environment, News

WorldGBC has announced four new companies as signatories to its Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment (the Commitment), signalling global industry leadership to decarbonise the built environment and combat climate change. The Commitment now has a total of 132 signatories, with 98 businesses & organisations, 28 cities and six states & regions. The businesses and organisations signed up to the Commitment now account for over 5 million (tCO2e) of portfolio emissions. (more…)

February 17, 2021

Hybrid working is the new expectation of pressured employees

by Jayne Smith • Flexible working, News, Working culture

The past twelve months have proved to be a watershed year for workplace digital transformation and the urgent shift to remote working has seen the world experience two years of digital transformation in two months. New research from Microsoft Surface claims to examine the impact of this transformation on the UK workforce, suggesting that employees are happier, but under more pressure working from home – despite almost 9 out of 10 (87 percent) of employees reporting their businesses have adapted to ‘hybrid working’. (more…)

February 17, 2021

More than half of UK workers planning to take on a side hustle

by Jayne Smith • Business, News, Working lives

Over half (54 percent) of UK workers say they are more open to taking on a side hustle or freelance work since the Covid-19 pandemic, according to new research from Fiverr. Over 2 in 5 (44 percent) agree they are more open to it, due to the flexibility that working from home has given them. (more…)

February 11, 2021

The future workplace will only thrive with social and customer experience at its heart

by Sonia Brown • Comment, Workplace design

One important concept the pandemic has taught us is that irrespective of where we work and whatever form the future workplace takes, our brand must remain strong. With much of our workforce now working from home, how do we bridge the gap between corporate and home life? As head offices re-form into social hangout hubs, and dining tables become makeshift desks, one message is loud and clear – connection with and delight in a brand is everything. From our internal talent and culture, and supply partnerships, to external customer persona, we must strengthen our culture both inside and out. (more…)

February 10, 2021

Ten point green plan needs to be embraced by organisations

by Paul Scriven • Comment, Environment

We’ve been talking to our clients a lot over the last eighteen months, informing and educating them about when upcoming green legislation might come into force and what that will mean for the construction industry. So, it’s with interest that we saw the UK government unveil its ten point green plan in mid-November that reflected our predictions to date. The hope is that this route to a green industrial revolution will have a game-changing impact, similar to the positive effect on people and places the original industrial revolution had some 260 years earlier. (more…)

February 9, 2021

Getting the measure of better working cultures

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design

For now, just forget the cyborg monkeys and spinach sending emails, the real short term tech action is all about how to gauge what workers are thinking or doing, and what to do about it – especially if whatever they are thinking and doing is not what the org wants for them or, more importantly, itself. Things are getting crazy. (more…)